I thought we better quickly recap our trip to Edinburgh a week and a half ago since I have failed to do so yet. We took the bus down Thursday morning. It even arrived a little early, which is always nice! We quickly looked up the Tourist Information Centre so we could figure out what to do and how to get there. We opted for an early check-in at our hostel (my wise husband's idea!) so we could drop off our backpacks. You may or may not believe me when I saw we each only took ONE backpack each! That was including 3 meals for me and about 6 snacks :) Believe me, we haven't ever travelled that light! Mark grabbed lunch at a local take away place and I brought my salad. We wandered until we found Hunter Square where there were steps and people gathering with their lunches. The pigeons and seagulls were also gathered to beg, swoop and kill for their lunches as necessary.
My goal of lunch was to 1. Not get pooped on and 2. Get the gulls flying mid-air. Finally accomplished that! :) We also enjoyed seeing various street performers shortly after lunch. The Edinburgh Festival was about to kick off, but the "Fringe Festival" already had, so there were lots of people/activities/concerts, etc. After having our first taste of street performers we headed to the National Museum of Scotland to enjoy their free exhibitions. We were about to leave when I saw they had a 7th floor viewing garden. So up the "lift" we went where we were offered a great view of the city (and even some sunshine). Below you can see Edinburgh Castle in the distance.
By this time I was tired out and needing a nap. Mark wanted to check out the University of Edinburgh's divinity library, so we parted ways. For dinner we headed to Friday's for a small taste of home. After MUCH walking my ankle was bothering me (Edinburgh is incredibly hilly with multiple steep roads) so we headed for our room. So much for a night out on the town. Friday morning brought more fog/rain, but we had already bought tickets to take a bus tour of the city and planned to go at 9:30am, so we hopped on the bus.
Above the right hand tree is where the castle should be...Thankfully, the weather broke the longer the morning went on so that by the time we actually go up to the castle that afternoon it was mostly sunny :)
The view from the castle looking down onto the city with the Firth of Forth in the background was pretty incredible. It was easy to see why they built the castle where they did!
Towards the end of the day we spent some time in the Princes Street Gardens near the Sir Walter Scott Memorial.
And I got to try to capture the beauty of the multitude of hydrangea bushes!
Shortly after dinner time we headed back to Aberdeen by train. That was a new and fun experience for both of us. We both really enjoyed Edinburgh and hope we get the chance to go back while we live here.
My goal of lunch was to 1. Not get pooped on and 2. Get the gulls flying mid-air. Finally accomplished that! :) We also enjoyed seeing various street performers shortly after lunch. The Edinburgh Festival was about to kick off, but the "Fringe Festival" already had, so there were lots of people/activities/concerts, etc. After having our first taste of street performers we headed to the National Museum of Scotland to enjoy their free exhibitions. We were about to leave when I saw they had a 7th floor viewing garden. So up the "lift" we went where we were offered a great view of the city (and even some sunshine). Below you can see Edinburgh Castle in the distance.
By this time I was tired out and needing a nap. Mark wanted to check out the University of Edinburgh's divinity library, so we parted ways. For dinner we headed to Friday's for a small taste of home. After MUCH walking my ankle was bothering me (Edinburgh is incredibly hilly with multiple steep roads) so we headed for our room. So much for a night out on the town. Friday morning brought more fog/rain, but we had already bought tickets to take a bus tour of the city and planned to go at 9:30am, so we hopped on the bus.
Above the right hand tree is where the castle should be...Thankfully, the weather broke the longer the morning went on so that by the time we actually go up to the castle that afternoon it was mostly sunny :)
The view from the castle looking down onto the city with the Firth of Forth in the background was pretty incredible. It was easy to see why they built the castle where they did!
Towards the end of the day we spent some time in the Princes Street Gardens near the Sir Walter Scott Memorial. 
And I got to try to capture the beauty of the multitude of hydrangea bushes!
Shortly after dinner time we headed back to Aberdeen by train. That was a new and fun experience for both of us. We both really enjoyed Edinburgh and hope we get the chance to go back while we live here.
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